Save Gandhian institute from takeover by RSS

The Sangh Parivar has been trying to takeover the Gandhian Institute of Studies in Rajghat, Varanasi for some time through an expelled employee of the Institute Smt. Kusum Lata Kedia. The Institute was founded by late Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) in 1960 with the purpose of building a closer relationship between grassroots movements and academia so that both would benefit from each other. The land was given on lease by Sarva Sewa Sangh and support for construction provided by U.P. Gandhi Smarak Nidhi. JP ran the Institute without any government support from its inception till 1977. It was only during the Janata Party regime that it was decided that Institute would meet its running expenses with support from ICSSR and the UP Government.

K.L. Kedia, with affiliations to RSS, joined the Institute and initiated the downfall of this prestigious Institute. She had to be expelled from the Institute in 2002 by its Board of Management after recommendations given in by a committee headed by late Usha Mehta, on disciplinary grounds. However, she schemed with then HRD minister Murali Manohar Joshi and got the funds from ICSSR to the Institute stopped. She got herself declared as the acting director by the ICSSR. It was when she had started abusing the Institute’s property that a dharna was organized by the Board of Management, now headed by legendary Gandhian Acharya Ramamurti, in 2003 to ask the administration to step in to prevent her from doing so. The local administration put a lock on the main building. Meanwhile, she continued to occupy the director’s residence.

With the coming into power of Congress led government at the centre, funds from ICSSR resumed. Arjun Singh described this as a test case for freeing an academic institution from saffronization. Sarva Sewa Sangh allowed the Institute to function from its adjacent premises with a Professor of BHU, Prof. Dipak Malik as its new Director and Muniza Rafiq Khan as its acting Registrar. However, the Mulayam Singh government was unable to get the Institute begin functioning from its main premises. In fact, a minister in his government, Omprakash Singh, was instrumental in getting the application for renewal of registration of the Society which runs the Institute rejected. With the coming of Mayawati Govt. we expected quite rightfully that it will announce final exit of the RSS led conspiracy managed by Ms. K.L. Kedia but in a queer turn of events here too a former RSS functionary and currently higher education minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi a close disciple of Murli Manohar Joshi taking pretext of a District Court order while the case is already subjudice in the High Court at Allahabad has forced the Principal Secretary, Education, UP Government, to form a committee headed by K.L. Kedia, who was given the highest honour in the Sangh Parivar Hedgewar Award, to oversee the running of the Gandhian Institute of Studies. The rest of the committee is also packed with people close to RSS. This is an ill omen for newly formed Govt. in U. P. where RSS infiltrators are trying to sabotage the agenda of the newly elected Govt.

This is a momentary defeat for the Gandhian and secular community in saving the Institute from falling into the hands of Sangh Parivar which has been responsible for Gandhi’s murder as well as assault on his ideology from time to time.

Gandhian Institute of Studies must be saved from takeover by RSS. It has to be restored to its original mission as envisioned by JP. Please call the UP C.M. at 0522-2236181, 2239296 (o), 2236761, 2750458 (h) or send a fax at 0522-2223000 to register your protest.